


Blood Is Not Spoiled By Water

by MmeSatan



Category: Ghost (Sweden Band)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 18:38:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18555517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MmeSatan/pseuds/MmeSatan
Summary: A young, angry Vittorio Emeritus (II) looks for his brother Ignazio (III), but shows where his true loyalty lies when he finds him.





	Blood Is Not Spoiled By Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rubrikate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubrikate/gifts).



Vittorio Emeritus was looking for his brother. He was displeased. Ignazio had missed a very important meeting for the third time in as many months, and that made him very angry. How could he be so irresponsible and disinterested in Church matters? Both of them were in line to become Papa one day, and he felt like he was the only one to take it seriously. So he was going to find him (probably in the arms of yet another Sister of Sin) and tell him exactly what he thought of his attitude.

 

He had looked in all of the usual spots -- his room, the dormitory, the confessional, the mess hall -- and was now heading outside. He found him there, at the edge of the woods, alone, crouching. Moving furiously toward him, he wasted no time on the attack. “Ignazio you idiot! The meeting with Father and Aldo should have started half an hour ago and there you are, wasting your time and ours again! Will you never learn?”

 

Ignazio did not react, still staring quietly at the ground in front of him. Vittorio stopped and frowned. How unusual it was for his brother to pass on the opportunity for a fight. “Ignazio?” He moved closer, angling himself to see his face. That's when he noticed what his brother was looking at: the mangled body of a cat. “Is that…”

 

Ignazio nodded. “Hekate.” Tears pooled in his eyes. “She went out last night, wasn't back this morning. She's always…” He winced. “She was always back for breakfast, and I've been looking for her since I woke up, and now…” He fell, sobbing, over the body at his knees.

 

It was true that Vittorio had little respect for his brother. Despite his brother being younger by only a few months, he found him childish, impulsive, irresponsible. They had not gotten along in years. But they were of the same blood, Emeritus blood, and that mattered. The purebreed Bengal had been Ignazio's beloved pet for 12 years, since his 9th birthday, and she had been the one responsibility he had always taken seriously.

 

“It must have been one of those stray dogs that have been seen on the grounds since last week. I'll ask Father to have them exterminated.” Ignazio nodded, his eyes still fixed on Hekate's body. Vittorio put a hand on his shoulder and coughed. “Um, I'm sorry about your cat. I'm sure we can have the meeting another day.”

 

“Thank you.” Ignazio looked up at his brother, who nodded in response. Then, as he saw him motion to leave, he called to him. “ _Fratello_ , could you do something for me? Please?”

 

Vittorio stopped and looked over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow. “Yes?”

 

“In my room, there's her bed. The one that's shaped like a coffin. Could you bring it to me? I'd like to… bury her.” His voice caught in his throat at those last words.

 

“Of course. Wait for me here.” He watched his brother collapse over the cat once more, sobbing, and made his way back to the main hall.

 

\-------

 

Fifteen minutes later, Vittorio reached his brother once more, this time carrying a large box. “I brought what you asked, _fratello_. You should wrap her in this first,” he added, handing him a length of black cloth and a cat toy he had grabbed in the room.

 

Ignazio was very quiet as he solemnly placed the body in the small coffin and closed the lid. He let his hand linger on the silver Grucifix decorating the dark wood for a minute before cradling it in his arms. Vittorio had been looking at him in silence, hands behind his back, but broke the moment to ask him, “Where do you want us to bury her?”

 

His younger brother looked at him in shock. “Us? You're coming with me?”

 

“Of course. You can't hold a funeral on your own, can you? Do you even know how to?” There was no malice in his voice, and Ignazio gave a small laugh.

 

“I was going to improvise.” Both of them laughed as they walked towards their older brother's gardens.

 

They passed a group of giggling Sisters of Sin who seemed to be headed their way, but Vittorio put a stop to it with a glare. This was no time for flirting. Ignazio lead them to a large apple tree. “She loved to climb it,” he explained, holding the coffin to his chest.

 

Vittorio asked a Brother of Sin who was working nearby to dig a hole underneath the tree. He said a burial prayer as Ignazio lowered the coffin into the ground, and covered it in dirt. From the box he had brought, he retrieved a bouquet of dried roses and handed it to his brother, who stood by the fresh grave, head down, tears falling down his cheeks. They stood in silence for several minutes, until Ignazio was ready to leave.

 

\------

 

Vittorio accompanied his brother to his room. “I'll talk to Father and ask the kitchen staff to send you something to eat. Do you wish for company? I can ask that Sister you like, what's her name…”

 

Ignazio shook his head. “I need some time alone. But thank you, _fratello_. I promise not tell anyone you were nice to me.”

 

Vittorio let out a deep chuckle. “If you do, I'll break your nose again.”

 

“You would.” Now that he was smiling, he looked less like a shadow of himself than he had earlier. “Hey, where did you even get those flowers? I didn't have any in here.”

 

The reply came with a wide grin. “I took them from Imperator's personal collection.”

 

Ignazio's eyes grew wide. “She's going to _murder_ you if she finds out!”

 

Vittorio shrugged and clapped a hand on his brother's arm. “Then let's keep it quiet, like that time you took her brand new bottle of absinthe. It'd be a pity if she found out about that…”

 

He could hear his younger brother shouting “Vittorio, you _stronzo_! Come back immediately!” across the hallway as he headed for Nihil's quarters, his own laughter resonating on the stone walls.

  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks a lot for reading! 
> 
> rubrikate asked for "an interaction between young II and III, and II is nice to III for once"; this is what my brain came up with. Headcanons for Papa I, II and III's names and ages were borrowed from rubrikate and her Temporis series with full permission to use. Any similarities in characterization between the two is due to the fact that we've been talking about it together for months. Go read her stuff, it's amazing!


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